a silky fibre obtained from the hairs covering the seeds of a tropical bombacaceous tree, Ceiba pentandra (kapok tree or silk-cotton tree): used for stuffing pillows, etc, and for sound insulation
Also called: silk cotton
Word origin
C18: from Malay
kapok in American English
(ˈkeɪˌpɑk)
noun
the silky fibers around the seeds of any of several silk-cotton trees, esp. a ceiba(Ceiba pentandra): used for stuffing mattresses, life preservers, sleeping bags, etc.
Word origin
Malay
Examples of 'kapok' in a sentence
kapok
They looked larger than life, alien, with their lank hair and spray-soaked faces and their oilskins and fat kapok lifejackets.
Philip Marsden THE MAIN CAGES (2002)
Strange women; they never knew a roof over their heads or the feel of a kapok mattress beneath their iron-hard spines.